To ask if anyone has ‘cured’ their IBS?

[ImaHogg]

I know it’s classed as a life long condition but I’ve been suffering for 22 years and have just about have enough of this horrible condition.
I belong to endless IBS support groups but obviously most of the members are people like me who are still suffering a looking for help and advice. I am assuming that if people do have a grip of their symptoms then they are hardly likely to be on support groups.
I’ve tried endless things over the years from the low fodmap diet to hypnotherapy and CBT. None of which have really helped long term.
Two things I haven’t tried are probiotics (some of the reviews say they can cause diarrhoea which is one of my huge fears with this complaint). I’ve also tried a few antidepressants but I couldn’t get past the awful side effects.
I’m 48 and am starting to think that hormones now play a big part as my symptoms became much worse and virtually daily at the age of 45 and I also can’t lie and say I don’t suffer from anxiety as I really do and I have a very stressful life atm.
Late 2019 I had a colonoscopy, endoscopy and ct scan. At the follow up appointment the gastroenterologist said all was clear. I handed him a list of my symptoms and he asked if I had tried all the standard IBS meds, which I have to no relief. He handed me back my list and told me that he couldn’t help me and to go back to my gp!
So I am just wondering if anyone on here has/had IBS and has found a way of living well with the condition and has minimal or no longer has symptoms?
Any advice is most welcome.

www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/neurology-neurosurgery/news/autoimmune-gi-dysmotility-a-new-direction/mac-20429479#:~:text=Autoimmune%20GI%20dysmotility%20(AGID)%20is,constipation%20and%20involuntary%20weight%20loss.

My IBS is much better since I went gluten free
I also avoid too much dairy, all processed foods and have to limit caffeine
I cook from scratch and stick mainly to fruit veg salad eggs meat fish poultry etc

Western Dry Acupuncture.
1 needle, 3 minutes and I have not had an IBS attack since (almost 10 years now). I was totally sceptical, had never even heard of it and had zero faith in acupuncture at the time. I happened to be having an IBS attack at a time when I was seeing my chiropractor for a regular appointment on my back. He persuaded me to let him try it (I was in so much pain I was willing to give anything a try). Literally changed my life.

I had IBS for years, got pregnant and it pretty much just disappeared and hasn’t recurred since, DD is two! Having a baby is probably an extreme solution though.

I had it in my 20s and it went away when I went to therapy. Have had the odd flare since but not often.

A strict keto diet worked for me, I had an entire year completely symptom and pain free. I fell off the wagon a couple of months into the pandemic and symptoms came back with a vengeance.

I'm psychic myself up to restart it. Even dirty keto is fine. Apparently carbs are not my friend for many reasons!

Having kefir yogurt daily really helped mine, and weirdly mine was triggered by dairy a lot of the time, but the fermentation process it goes through does some sort of magic and I found that and also colpermin tablets the best things for me!

I started taking 1200mg ACV a day a year ago, had a two week diet reset to help it settle after the worst flare up id ever had nearly hospitalised me. Been suffering IBSd (with very very occasional C) for 20 years. Some days I couldn't go out because of it. Now eat whatever I want and haven't had a bad day since. I'm not even a big believer in natural remedy type things but I'm too scared to stop taking the ACV now!!

Hi OP - apols if this has been mentioned as I’ve not read all the posts, but have you tried acupuncture? This helped me after a really bad flare - otherwise Fodmap does tend to work for me generally, but I tend to get hormonal flare ups so wondered if worth a go for you.

The trouble with IBS is that it is lots of different symptoms, majoring and minoring in different locations of the digestive tract that make it so hard to treat. I have had it since the age of 21 after a bacterial infection and all my symptoms were upper digestive tract (constant acid / nausea / reflux / pain around small intestines.) I would meet other IBS sufferers and their issues would be daily diarrhoea or not having been to the toilet for 2 weeks and while we could sympathise with the chronicness of the condition, what worked for me would not work for them and vice versa.

For the nausea, what works for me is a prescription of zofran, sucking pepto bismol tablets and something called relief band (which is for travel sickness but regulates your stomach through electric impulses.)
Overall I found that drinking more alcohol relaxed everything for me and stopped my sympathetic nervous system taking over all the time.
Hot water bottles on the area around the diaphragm even for nausea I found helpful.
Regular diet - ie eating the same thing at the same time every day so your body expects it and behaves in a predictable way.
During really bad bouts, white rice, broth and boiled sweets were my friend.

Mine was “cured” a couple of years back when I ended up on prescription antihistamines after an insect bite reaction.

I noticed a couple of days into my month course that my IBS-D had totally settled down.

So I started eating trigger foods again and found I could cope with them (cheese on pizza - mumsnet needs a drooling face).

I now take a 1 a day antihistamine and although some symptoms are back they are vastly reduced and less regular - I suspect the over the counter ones aren’t as strong as the prescription ones so don’t have the full effect.

But worth a try?

Mine was really awful for years I had to have a lot of tests which were all clear. Then I got pregnant and it stopped ?! It hasn’t come back since either and birth was two years ago 🤷🏻‍♀️ Obviously that’s not a treatment just thought it’s odd! Could it be hormones I don’t know 🤷🏻‍♀️

My DD is currently being tested for Crohns/IBS/coeliac etc, this thread is very helpful

Mine almost stopped once i retired from teaching, I think it was largely stress related in my case. I used to have to put a couple of tables together at lunchtime and lie on the hard surface to ease the pain. I never looked into the dietary aspect, my diet hasn't changed much yet I've not had an attack for years.

Mine is hormonal. It helps as I know exactly when it will flare which is every 14 days (mid cycle and end of cycle). I used to track symptoms with an app which is how I noticed the trends.

I usually use kefir around those times which does help and avoid usual IBS triggers but I will still suffer for a few days. The rest of the month I can eat or drink whatever I want within reason.

I found I was 100x worse on hormonal contraception as I was suffering every day. It was only when I came off the pill when I was trying for my daughter that I was symptom free. Pregnant, I had horrendous morning sickness, nausea, bloating etc. I think I am just very sensitive to hormonal fluctuations so I avoid all hormonal contraceptives now and have found that balancing my hormone levels help the symptoms a lot

I developed IBS after 2 weeks in Egypt with multiple episodes of food poisoning.

It took me a couple of years trying GP prescribed stuff and in the end it was Activia which sorted it out. Even now when I have symptoms a week of Activia and I'm back to normal. Whatever is in them suits my gut. I would imagine there's something that will suit yours and you've had 22 years of trial and error. But so little actual research is done you have to be your own scientist. And what works for one may or may not work for another. If there was proper testing they'd be able to narrow down the individual issues that grouped together are called IBS. But sadly no one cares 'enough' to invest in that research.

I did also find this helpful alongside the Activia.
phytopower.myshopwired.com/

I’m pretty much symptom free now due to dietary measures and some probiotic supplements.

About 70% of people with IBS have SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth) or IMO (Intestinal Methanogenic Overgrowth) or a combination of the two. The work of Dr Mark Pimentel of Cedars-Sinai is informative on this.

There are antibiotic therapies for SIBO and IMO which are often successful to the point of total cure, depending on the underlying causes. Acid reflux is also a common symptom of SIBO.

Many cases of SIBO are caused by a bout or bouts of food poisoning. This will often be called post-infectious IBS. Repeated bouts for food poisoning can mean that the illness progresses to being an autoimmune condition.

There is a blood test, called IBS-Smart that can I form you whether food poisoning is the underlying cause and if it has progressed to an autoimmune stage (the latter is more likely to recur- treatment is possible but may need to be repeated).

Another common underlying cause of SIBO is EDS so that would be worth looking into.

I have SIBO but it’s not the post-infectious kind, so the antibiotic therapies are less likely to be effective for me so I have taken a dietary management route.

This is basically components from Low Fodmap and Fast Tract Diets, and I keep an eye on the sulfur content of foods too (this is because the the bacteria implicated in the form of SIBO I have is also implicated in IBD and there is a Japanese diet based on lowering sulphur that has been shown to be effective in managing IBD symptoms).

I also take:
L Plantarum 299v
L Rhamnosus
L Reutri
These are all probiotic supplements and also molybdenum (helps with sulphur processing).

I have also found that both live lactose free Greek yoghurt and Roquefort cheese (or any low lactose aged hard blue cheese) are helpful as regular parts of my diet.

Yes, by going on the pogesterone only pill. I only realised quite how much I'd cured it when I came off it to try and conceive.

However I have gained lots of weight as a side effect- whether that's the pill making me hungrier or the fat I shat out all my food before if had time to absorb I'm not sure!

Kefir. It has really helped me with ibs issues. I don’t make my own, although that would be considerably cheaper. I get it from the supermarket and drink a glass, about 200ml every morning. It helped me from the first week I started, so I haven’t stopped.

Also, stress and anxiety are massive factors. The Curable app might be a helpful place to start.

Cutting carbs, alcohol and dairy worked for me. Had horrible time in 2020 due to eating and drinking way too much due to boredom. 2021 over haul and feeling pretty good atm.

I also did a prolonged water fast to kick start it.

The contraceptive pill gave me IBS including nausea mid cycle (one of your symptoms too). I came off the pill but the problems that the pill set off only really went away by being very careful with eating habits and diet, and doing homeopathic treatment for 18 months. I stay off sugar and eat an organic whole food diet. Light meal in evenings, heaviest meal lunchtime. No highly processed food. No snacking between meals, only eat when hungry. Ginger tea in the morning. I also find that being in a polluted environment makes me worse so I am careful with how I furnish my house—no chipboard furniture, just solid wood, we don’t have carpets, just hard floors. All this has worked for me.

Thank you everyone, this has been so helpful, I’m glad I posted especially as I am having a bad IBS morning today, for some reason (Its the unpredictable nature of this condition I hate so much just don’t know how it’s going to be from day to day!).
Definitely need to re-evaluate my diet and look into many other things suggested on here.

I developed an IBD (ulcerative proctitis) a few years back. Diagnosed following a colonoscopy. Had to take medication on and off to relieve symptoms. As you do I started researching the possible causes and triggers (not YouTube, mainly peer reviewed scientific articles). Several papers concluded that oral contraceptives and certain antibiotics may increase the risk of developing IBD. My symptoms started after taking strong antibiotics, nothing I could do about that now but I decided to stop my oral contraceptive and see whether that had an effect. I haven't had a single symptom since doing so, been two years now. Quite possibly coincidence but I won't get back on it, just in case. I'd been on it for two decades by that point so had been thinking of coming of it anyway so this was just the final push. Of course this proves nothing, it just worked for me.

Duckfeetarego I have gynae issues too. Uterine polyps and reoccurring ovarian cysts. I too asked the gynaecologist if it could be connected to my gut issues but got a firm no.